Belden (NYSE:BDC) Raised to “Buy” at StockNews.com

StockNews.com upgraded shares of Belden (NYSE:BDC) from a hold rating to a buy rating in a research note published on Thursday morning.

Separately, Truist Financial increased their price objective on shares of Belden from $89.00 to $98.00 and gave the stock a buy rating in a research report on Friday, February 9th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a hold rating and five have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of Moderate Buy and a consensus price target of $103.00.

Belden Stock Performance

NYSE BDC opened at $88.23 on Thursday. The business’s 50 day moving average price is $87.12 and its 200-day moving average price is $78.23. Belden has a fifty-two week low of $60.54 and a fifty-two week high of $99.13. The company has a market cap of $3.59 billion, a P/E ratio of 17.27 and a beta of 1.07. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.02, a quick ratio of 1.72 and a current ratio of 2.55.

Belden (NYSE:BDC) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, May 2nd. The industrial products company reported $1.24 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.05 by $0.19. Belden had a net margin of 9.01% and a return on equity of 23.11%. The company had revenue of $536.00 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $514.27 million. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $1.68 earnings per share. Belden’s quarterly revenue was down 16.5% compared to the same quarter last year. Sell-side analysts predict that Belden will post 5.77 earnings per share for the current year.

Belden Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, April 9th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, March 14th were issued a $0.05 dividend. This represents a $0.20 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.23%. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, March 13th. Belden’s payout ratio is presently 3.91%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Belden news, EVP Brian Lieser sold 2,056 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, February 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $82.30, for a total value of $169,208.80. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 21,772 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,791,835.60. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. 1.59% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Trading of Belden

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its holdings in Belden by 2.0% during the 3rd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 4,714,202 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $455,156,000 after purchasing an additional 92,544 shares during the period. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC increased its stake in shares of Belden by 2.2% during the first quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC now owns 1,383,742 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $128,148,000 after buying an additional 30,268 shares during the period. FMR LLC raised its holdings in shares of Belden by 1,365.5% in the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 1,026,156 shares of the industrial products company’s stock valued at $99,075,000 after acquiring an additional 956,136 shares in the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP lifted its stake in Belden by 17.9% in the fourth quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 985,282 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $76,113,000 after acquiring an additional 149,263 shares during the period. Finally, Channing Capital Management LLC lifted its stake in Belden by 29.4% in the fourth quarter. Channing Capital Management LLC now owns 919,066 shares of the industrial products company’s stock worth $70,998,000 after acquiring an additional 209,052 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 98.75% of the company’s stock.

About Belden

Belden Inc designs, manufactures, and markets a portfolio of signal transmission solutions for mission critical applications in the Americas, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and the Asia-Pacific. It operates in two segments, Enterprise Solutions and Industrial Automation Solutions. The Enterprise Solutions segment offers copper cable and connectivity solutions, fiber cable and connectivity solutions, interconnect panels, racks and enclosures, and signal extension and matrix switching systems for use in applications, such as local area networks, data centers, access control, 5G, fiber to the home, and building automation.